


Like Apples and Oranges (or Maybe Ammonia and Bleach)

by radicalbats



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Party, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-03-13 13:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3383894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radicalbats/pseuds/radicalbats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Oi, Kageyama, how about you bring your roommate?"</p>
<p>In which Hinata and Kageyama are dorm mates, Kageyama's friends seriously doubt his social skills, and the very first college party either of them attend just happens to be a Valentine's Day party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Study Group Sucks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo!! I started writing this near the beginning of January and I'm just now getting the opportunity to work on it again. Now I'm involved in three separate things that all require my attention, but I don't have to be quite as involved in one, so! Here we go. Sorry the first chapter is a little short, I was just ready to get it out there! No doubt that the update schedule will be sporadic, but hopefully I can take advantage of my eight day weekend and stockpile a few chapters, ahaha. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Hope you enjoy it!

“Oi, Kageyama, how about you bring your roommate?”

Kageyama came very close to performing one of the world’s most genuine spit-takes, but he swallowed his coffee as best he could around the now searing pain in the back of his throat and wiped the newly formed teardrops away from his eyes. He coughed wetly, and Sugawara gave him a few concerned thumps on his back. “What?” he managed to sputter out.

Daichi rolled his eyes, wholly unamused. “Wow, that would have been comical if it wasn’t completely over-dramatic.”

"Over- wh- ‘Over-dramatic’? How on earth was that over-dramatic?" Kageyama glared at his friends, all but demanding a response and slamming his coffee cup down onto the table.

"It was a tad much…" Sugawara pressed his finger to his cheek in a thinly-veiled attempt to seem coy. "It was just a suggestion."

"Right! No need to get so defensive, eh?" Tanaka leaned over the table and roughly messed up Kageyama’s hair. Kageyama swatted him away none too gently, and Tanaka grumbled something about respecting his elders.

“‘Just a suggestion’? It’s ridiculous! Why would I ever invite that idiot to a party? Let alone one with a Valentine’s theme.”

"Well, seeing as you don’t have any friends besides us and him-"

Sugawara kicked Tanaka’s shin as hard as he could underneath the table. Tanaka doubled over and Sugawara tried talking over his pained moan. “True, it’s a Valentine’s Day party, but it doesn’t have to be romantic. Daichi and I just think it would just be nice if you had someone there that wasn’t in a pair.”

"I’ll have you guys. Don’t pretend you all have a more active social life than me; I bet everyone at this table is going alone." Kageyama grumbled, still bristling over the fact that the rest obviously had no faith in his ability to make friends.

"Nope!" Yamaguchi piped up from his corner of the table, "Me and Tsukki are going together!"

Kageyama looked to the quiet blond for confirmation, but all he was met with was silence as the bespectacled man turned up the volume on his MP3 player and screwed his earbuds a little more tightly into his ears.

"And once the beautiful goddess Kiyoko gives me a call back, you’ll be the only one here going stag." Tanaka leaned his wooden chair dangerously far back on two legs, earning him frantic glances from the blonde girl a few tables over.

Kageyama narrowed his eyes. “Sugawara, Daichi, you won’t be bringing anyone either, right?”

The two upperclassmen shared a knowing smile- though more of a smirk on Daichi’s half- that told Kageyama absolutely nothing before turning to face him completely.

"Besides," Sugawara brushed over the question with ease, "I think it’s about time we finally meet this Hinata guy. I feel like I know everything about him, but I’ve never even met him!"

"Oh please, I don’t talk about him that much…" Kageyama tugged at his fringe, hoping it could at least help cover up his embarrassed expression. It didn’t.

Daichi distorted his face into his best (worst) impression of Kageyama’s signature scowl and lowered his voice into a growl that totally didn’t sound like Kageyama’s voice at all. “‘His name is Hinata Shoyou and he’s nineteen years old. He’s probably twenty or more centimeters shorter than me. His hair is a stupid shade of ginger that’s so bright it might as well be called orange. He’s an idiot and he probably wouldn’t have even survived last semester if he wasn’t so good at volleyball.”

Sugawara chuckled good natured-ly, but continued in a nature that Kageyama deemed far from good. “‘He always leaves his history book on my desk because it’s next to the door and he’s too lazy to walk to his own desk to avoid a mess. He turns every trip we take to the cafeteria into a race and he once ate so many pork buns he passed out for three hours. Every time he sees a crow on campus he feels the need to send me a picture of it.’” If Kageyama’s face wasn’t burning and he didn’t feel so betrayed, he might have laughed at how ridiculous Sugawara looked when he tried to look as intimidating as he was.

Tanaka guffawed, loudly smacking the table and making Yamaguchi flinch violently. It was lucky the study room was mostly empty, otherwise the group would have been sent packing a while ago.

Daichi was starting to crack up, but the sporadic hitch in his voice only added to the hilarity for the other two paying attention and the embarrassment of the one all this torture was directed towards. “‘He wears a size seven in shoes and sometimes he even needs to wear thicker socks to make them fit. No matter how cold it is outside he always manages to kick his comforter off of him in the middle of the night.’”

“‘He’s stolen at least three of my sweatshirts over the past two months.’” Sugawara’s poor imitation of Kageyama’s voice had all but disappeared; he was now fully focused on not laughing loud enough to get them kicked out of the library.

“‘Once he misread his syllabus to a class and he tried to write a seven page essay on a topic they hadn’t covered at one in the morning only to find out that the essay wouldn’t be assigned for another month and a half.’”

“‘All of his boxers have a volleyball pattern on them.’”

“‘One time one of his volleyball posters fell down in the middle of the night and I almost pissed the bed!’”

"Oh my god shut UP!" That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Kageyama, and he nearly knocked his chair to the ground in his hurry to escape his so-called friends’ torment. "I’m leaving. You’re all terrible."

As he stormed out of the room Sugawara managed to yell, “Think about it!” through his tears of laughter. His and Daichi’s heads nearly knocked together as they leaned over the table and clutched their stomachs.

Kageyama’s reply of, “Never!” proved to be too much for Tanaka, who finally tipped his chair over.

Tsukishima finally looked up from his nearly blank sheet of paper, taking in the sight of the easily-amused idiot upperclassmen he willingly chose to associate with. He tugged an earbud out and leaned his head on his hand. “Why is it that we never really study much in this study group?” The tone of his voice made it quite obvious that it was a rhetorical question.

Yamaguchi looked down at his massive pile of flash cards self-consciously. “I feel like I’ve been studying pretty well…”


	2. Everyone is Terrible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one gave me troubles, as most second chapters do. I tried my best, though, ahaha!! This fic already has had such nice responses!! Thank you so much!!  
> Btw my tumblr is Batsghoulsandghosties! If you have anything to ask about this fic feel free!

Kageyama swiveled around in his crappy computer chair, leaning on his elbow in an attempt to be discreet as he eyed his red-headed roommate.

He didn’t need to hide his gaze, however, as he found that Hinata seemed thoroughly invested in a bowl of microwaveable ramen noodles.

He quirked his eyebrow as he watched the smaller boy shove massive portions of ramen into his face. How hadn’t he choked yet?

It was actually a little fascinating, if not disgusting.

There was no way he could possibly bring this guy to a party. Even if it wasn’t a party with a romantic theme, there’s no way he’d want to bring him to a party. He was loud, he was messy, and he was always way too enthusiastic about things. He was just too everything. He-

He was wearing Kageyama’s sweatshirt.

Kageyama blinked, somewhat startled by the sudden change in his internal monologue and wanting to make sure he was right. He wasn’t mistaken.

It was the one he got from a summer training camp. It was too big on him then, but now it fit him snugly. It was still too big on Hinata, though.

That was the fourth sweatshirt he’s “borrowed” (yeah right, Kageyama is never getting that back) that winter. He cringed when he realized he had mentioned it enough times that Sugawara remembered the number exactly. He didn’t talk about Hinata that much, did he?

Whatever. It was probably a lucky guess.

"I don’t talk about him that much…" He mumbled under his breath.

"What?"

Kageyama managed to wrench his focus away from his thoughts to find Hinata staring him straight in the eyes. And he looked really, really confused.

"Huh?"

Hinata lowered his chopsticks. “You were staring at me for, like, ten minutes-“

"I was not-"

”- and you had this really weird face going on,” he did a poor imitation of Kageyama’s scowl, “and you were talking to yourself or something.”

"Oh." He hadn’t realized he’d said anything out loud.

Hinata paused, looking at Kageyama with apprehension. “You don’t need to go to the hospital, do you?”

Kageyama frowned. “Why would I need to go to the hospital?”

"I don’t know, maybe you’ve got a concussion!" He hopped off of his bed, the summer camp sweatshirt dwarfing him further. "Walk into any walls lately?"

"Please, that’s more likely to happen to you." He tugged on his fringe, hoping Hinata didn’t notice the embarrassed red of his cheeks.

"Is not!" Hinata balled his fists and stomped over to where Kageyama was sitting. He poked his forehead.

"What the hell are you doing?" He swatted his hand away, but Hinata kept prodding at his head.

"Checking for bumps. I bet you totally gave yourself a concussion and you don’t want to admit that I’m right."

"That’s stupid." Kageyama grabbed his hand in an attempt to stop Hinata’s annoying barrage. "You’re stupid."

"You’re the stupid one. Which one of us is failing college algebra?" Hinata threaded the fingers of both of their hands together and started to push on Kageyama’s. The taller boy dug his heels into the linoleum floor in attempt to stay still in his dumb rolling chair.

"Both of us? You totally bombed that last test." Kageyama started to push back, but it was a little awkward when he was in his computer chair. It was a little more awkward when he realized Hinata was almost the same height as he was sitting down.

"Nope! I’m getting by on my assignments. C’s get degrees!" Hinata pushed even harder; he was surprisingly strong. "While yooou have a D!"

Kageyama’s hands went slack the split second Hinata gave a final shove, tipping the chair over and sending both of them sprawling to the floor.

Kageyama’s head narrowly avoided hitting the desk and smacked down hard on the ground. “Ah, shit.” It didn’t help that Hinata had fallen on his chest.

Jumping up quickly, Hinata rushed to crouch beside his groaning friend. “Oh god, are you alright?!”

Kageyama rubbed the back of his aching head, squinting. “Yeah, I think I’m fine.” When he regained his bearings, he scowled. “Would be a lot better if you hadn’t tipped me over, dumbass.”

Hinata pushed away the computer chair so Kageyama could pull himself up on his knees. “I’m really sorry! I mean, hopefully you didn’t get an actual concussion…”

Hinata looked so concerned that most of the anger that had been building up inside Kageyama dissipated. “Ugh.” He roughly mussed Hinata’s hair before using the boy’s head to pull himself up, earning him and indignant, “Hey!” Kageyama flopped against the headboard of his bed, careful to avoid hitting his head on anything, and glanced down at Hinata.

He was leaning down to right the chair, and the hem of the sweatshirt hung low, nearly to his knees.

Did it even keep him warm? How could it, with it being that loose?

"Why do you keep stealing my sweatshirts?"

Visibly tensing, Hinata gave him a worried look over his shoulder before turning away again. “Oh, uh… I didn’t bring enough winter clothes with me from home! Sorry!” He set the chair upright on its wheels and turned to face Kageyama, tugging subconsciously on the aforementioned sweatshirt. Face flushed for some inexplicable reason, he refused to meet Kageyama’s eyes with his own. “I, uh- I won’t take any more!” He looked just about ready to rip the one he was wearing off that second.

"No! Ah, I mean. I don’t mind." Hinata finally looked at him, surprise clearly written on face. Kageyama suddenly felt kind of hot in the face as well, and found himself unable to keep up eye contact. "You can borrow all you want. You should, ah, should probably get some of your own, though."

Hinata’s sheepish laugh made Kageyama’s flush deepen, to his confusion. “Yeah, I probably should.”

He saw Hinata return to his bed out of the corner of his eye. All was quiet for a few minutes, until he heard laughter bubbling up from Hinata’s side of the room.

When the chuckles turned into full-blown laughter, Kageyama had to investigate. To be honest, he was a little worried that Hinata was laughing at him.

"What are you laughing at, dumbass?"

"Nothing!" He wiped his eyes, obviously beyond amused about something. "It’s just, normally you don’t notice, or you just don’t say anything."

"So?"

"Maybe you really do have a concussion!"

A second later Kageyama hurled his pillow at his roommate’s stupid face.  
~~~~~~~

"So, did you ask him?" were the first words Kageyama heard when he entered the study room on Wednesday afternoon.

"It’s been one day!" Slinging his ratty backpack over the back of the chair, he sunk into his normal seat between Tsukishima’s- which was surprisingly empty, along with Yamaguchi’s- and Sugawara’s. "And I didn’t even agree to ask him in the first place," he added, face red.

"You never said no." Tanaka leaned back in his chair, obviously not learning anything from yesterday’s incident.

"I never said yes!"

"Did you even talk about it?" Daichi interrupted, looking up at Kageyama skeptically.

"…No."

"Kageyama!" Sugawara looked downright upset.

"God! I will, okay? I just got distracted. Besides, he probably won’t even want to go." He dragged his books out of his backpack and slammed them on the table, hoping it would be an effective conversation ender.

It wasn’t.

"Distracted? You share a room, you had plenty of time to think about it." Sugawara pouted. Kageyama had no idea why he was so invested in this.

"Yeah, what distracted you for a whole night, huh?" Tanaka raised an eyebrow, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

Kageyama scowled, finding Tanaka’s chair with his foot and shoving it forward. Luckily for Tanaka, Daichi was prepared, and he grabbed the side of the chair before it could pitch backwards. Tanaka planted his feet on the ground, glaring at Kageyama.

"Asshole."

"You’re the asshole! Nothing happened- I was thinking about saying something but then I noticed he was wearing my sweatshirt. That’s all. I just lost my train of thought."

"Oh, is that all?" Daichi rolled his eyes, leaning forward to look Kageyama square in the face. "How many has he borrowed, now? Six?"

"Just four! And yes, that is all!" He scowled, shoulders tensing. He had just gotten there and was already the uncomfortable center of attention.

Daichi looked at Sugawara and mouthed _’just all’_ , earning him a chuckle poorly disguised as a cough, before continuing. “Seems like it affected you enough that you totally lost your train of thought.”

Kageyama was red enough that it was a surprise steam wasn’t actually billowing out of his ears. “Shut up!”

That certainly gained the attention of the other tables. Unfortunately for him, there were several more tables filled than yesterday, and several more eyes trained on him today. If someone had missed his outburst, the cackling of his friends would definitely gain their attention.

"You’re all terrible." Hauling his backpack onto his lap, he dug around for his phone, hoping to have some sort of distraction from his jackass friends (without having to actually study during one of their study sessions.)

Unfortunately, he ended up empty handed.

"Damn, where the hell is my phone?"

Behind him, he heard the door to the study room open with a creak.

A familiar, way-too-loud voice called out, “Hey, Kageyama? Are you in here?”


	3. People Are Less Terrible Than Previously Thought. For the Most Part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a while, but I think it's my longest yet, so! This particular chapter was a blast to write, ahaha!! And now that I've finished I can actually do my online homework... Yay...  
> Thank you so so much for the positive reviews once again! I'm hoping you enjoy this chapter as well!

"Hinata?"

Kageyama turned in his chair and his suspicions were immediately confirmed. Hinata was standing with the door still open, bag slung over his right shoulder, looking around as if he was uncertain as to whether Kageyama was there or not. When he finally looked in his direction, his whole face lit up.

Kageyama was a bit startled. Why did Hinata look so happy to see him?

He skipped up to the table, disposable tray of drinks in one hand and a black beanie in the other, and gave Kageyama and his friends a winning smile.

Kageyama vaguely noticed his friends had stopped laughing, stopped talking, stopped- well, everything.

"Hey!" Hinata’s eyes swept across the table, taking in Kageyama’s little rag-tag study group for the first time.

"Hinata," Kageyama gave him a small, distracted nod in greeting,"what’s up?"

He gave him a blank look for a moment before his eyes widened. “OH! Yeah! So. I was riding my bike through campus, right? And right when I passed by the auditorium I had to stop because my boot was untied, and well, I definitely don’t want that to get caught up in my chain! So I did. Uh, stop, that is.”

Kageyama stared at him, wondering what sort of point he was trying to make with his story.

"Then! When I bent down to tie my shoe, I noticed a pen on the ground, like, 2 meters away from me. And I was like, ‘woa! I’ve gotta get that pen!’"

"Please tell me you didn’t pick up the nasty ground pen."

"It was a really nice pen, okay! And listen to the story! So I see this pen, yeah? And when I’m done tying my shoe I go to pick it up. But then! When I’m, like, half a meter away, WOA! A crow swooped in like ‘bwoah!’ and grabbed the pen!" He swooped his hand out to demonstrate, nearly hitting Kageyama in the face in the process.

"What-"

"Don’t interrupt! So it grabbed the pen, yeah? And I was already grabbing my phone to take a picture because yeah, I’m kinda surprised and also don’t have a pen now, but it’s a crow picking up a pen! How cool is that? But instead of just flying away or something, it goes and perches on one of the auditorium windows! And like, it has the pen in its beak, so it looked like it was trying to go to class! I took like a billion pictures of it, and it let me get really close! But the coolest thing was it kept knocking on the window like it wanted in, so I bet it was just trying to return the pen to someone! Crows are so cool."

He put his free hand on his hip, huge smile on his face as if his story explained every single question Kageyama might have.

The look on Kageyama’s face showed that it certainly did not.

"Okay? What does that have to do with you being here, though?"

The smile slipped off Hinata’s face as he remembered his real purpose for being there. “Oh. Right. Well, I sent you maybe ten pictures of the crow, and when you didn’t reply I sent like twenty messages telling you to look at your phone, but then I felt something move in my bag.” He shoved his hand into his book bag, feeling around the bottom until he found what he wanted. He pulled out a cell phone. “You must have left it in here when we went to grab breakfast this morning. I almost didn’t even feel it vibrate; turn your ringer on next time!”

That certainly made Kageyama remember. “Oh, right. Thanks.” He gratefully took the cell phone from Hinata. Before putting it away in his pocket, however, he frowned. “‘Left it’? More like you put it in there and forgot about it, idiot. I asked you to watch it, not take it.”

"Hey! It’s not my fault you’re shit at looking after your phone! Who doesn’t bring their phone to the restroom now, anyway?!"

"Why’ve you got two coffees?"

"Wh-" all of the frustration on Hinata’s face slipped away, surprised by the sudden change in topic. "Oh, this one’s for you." He popped it out of the tray and offered it to Kageyama.

He tentatively reached out his hand, but paused before he actually took it. “Why did you get me something?”

“Well, when I found your phone I was already on my way to the café, and I figured since you were up really late working on your paper- which wouldn’t have happened if you had started it before ten, by the way- you might need a little caffeine by now.”

"Like you’re one to talk-" Kageyama started, but he figured he should probably be thankful for something so nice and out of the blue. "Ah, sorry. Thanks, really."

Hinata grinned. “I remembered your order this time, too! Lots of milk and one packet of sugar.”

The corners of Kageyama’s lips quirked into a small smile, and he reached out to take the cup. His fingers brushed against Hinata’s and he nearly jerked his hand back in surprise. “Damn, your hands are freezing!” He absentmindedly set the cup down on the table, looking at his roommate worriedly.

He just waved his hand. “Eh, well, I was out in the cold for a little while longer than I normally am, ‘cause I couldn’t bike with coffee in my hand.”

Kageyama frowned. “You shouldn’t have got me anything, then. I don’t want you getting sick because you spent too long outside.”

Hinata just waved his hand again, shoving the other in one of the deep pockets of his coat. “Nah, it’s alright; the café is just two blocks away. I wasn’t out that long. I didn’t want to dine in anyway, it was way too crowded!”

"I’ll pay you back."

Hinata grinned. “Just buy me a pork bun from the convenience store and I’ll call us even.”

Kageyama nodded, entirely too serious.

They looked at each other in silence for close to ten seconds, before Kageyama was startled by someone loudly clearing their throat to his right.

Oh _shit_.

He turned sharply to face his friends at the table, each of which had on a grin that was some level of annoyingly smug.

Kageyama wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole before he had to introduce Hinata to everyone.

Or, at the very least, he would also be okay with the ground swallowing the other three at the table so he wouldn’t have to deal with them.

"Uh, well, would you like to meet my study group?"

Oh wow. Oh wow that sounded so terrible Kageyama grimaced as he said it.

Hinata didn’t seem to mind, though, if the curious look on his face was anything to go by. “Sure!”

"Alright, uh…" He shifted in his seat to face the group more directly, instead of being mostly focused on Hinata. He awkwardly motioned towards Sugawara. "This is Sugawara Koushi-"

"Hi." Sugawara smiled at Hinata softly, giving him a slight wave. Kageyama was grateful for Sugawara’s calm nature at that moment, even if he was being a little infuriating moments before.

"And this is Sawamura Daichi-"

"Call me Daichi." He nodded at Hinata in greeting.

"And… This is…" Kageyama nearly groaned when he noticed Tanaka was obviously trying to act suave, giving Hinata one of his cheesiest smiles. Kageyama thought he was definitely failing. "This is Tanaka Ryuunosuke."

"So! You finally have a chance to meet that cool and interesting upperclassman that you’ve no doubt been hearing all about." He posed and Kageyama couldn’t hold onto his groan any longer. "What do you think?"

Kageyama turned to Hinata, completely exasperated and hoping to explain that he should in no way be judged because of his choice in acquaintances. His face dropped when he saw Hinata looking at Tanaka with total admiration.

Why he expected Hinata to not be impressed by the ridiculous Tanaka, he had no idea.

"Woah! Your hair is so cool! You look like you’d ride a motorcycle to class or something!"

Kageyama pouted.

Tanaka was literally swelling with pride, puffing out his chest and trying to act like the complements weren’t totally affecting him. “I’ll have you know, I _have_ been known to ride a bike in my spare time…”

Kageyama looked him square in the eyes. “The last time you tried to ride a motorbike it fell on your leg and you were on crutches for three weeks.” Tanaka bristled, complaining loudly about Kageyama’s “insubordination”.

Hinata had the sense to cover up his laugh in an effort to spare Tanaka’s feelings. Sugawara and Daichi didn’t even bother pretending they weren’t laughing at his expense.

He turned to Hinata. “It’s really not good to feed his ego.”

Hinata nodded. “Noted.” Tanaka visibly deflated.

"Hey, what happened to your psychology class?" Kageyama asked suddenly. "Doesn’t it start in, like, ten minutes?"

Hinata’s smile grew. “Cancelled due to weather! The one good thing about all this cold and snow.” After a moment of hesitation, the smile fell from his face and his eyes widened. “Oh, that reminds me, I really need to study for my psych test next week…” He frowned, digging in his bag for his beanie. “I should probably go.”

Without a second to think, Kageyama piped up, “You can stay here and study if you want.”

That must have surprised Hinata, as he stopped right in the middle of putting on his hat.

When Kageyama realized what he had offered so quickly, a flush crept up his cheeks. He was totally ready to rescind his offer, and was just about to when the elated look on his friend’s face made him stop short. “Really? You sure I won’t mess up your ‘study dynamic’?”

"I honestly can’t remember the last time all of us studied at once. You certainly won’t make it worse."

Hinata’s grin honestly looked like it hurt his face, it was so wide. “Awesome! Lemme go find the book I need. I’ll be right back.” He dropped his bag in Tsukishima’s regular chair, set his coffee down on the table, and sped out into the main library.

Kageyama felt the corners of his lips quirk up.

"Oh. My god."

He turned absently towards Sugawara, mind elsewhere. He was startled by the exasperated look on the silvery-blond man’s face. “What?”

"Oh my god Kageyama, you didn’t tell us you actually liked the guy!"

Kageyama nearly shrieked. “I do not!”

"What are we, middle schoolers?" Daichi interrupted. "You don’t have to be all defensive and deny you like someone."

"But I don’t!" Kageyama lowered his voice, embarrassed by both his friends and the looks he was beginning to get by strangers in the room.

"Are you sure?" Tanaka said. "Because it looked like you were pretty jealous when he was admiring my coolness." He still looked a little miffed about his bruised ego.

"Please, that guy looks up to anyone with a shred of confidence."

"That doesn’t mean you weren’t jealous."

"But I’m not!"

"You shouldn’t be!" Sugawara said. "First of all, jealousy isn’t a good trait. Second, he seemed like he might be into you too. No need for jealousy!"

Kageyama’s mind went blank. “What.”

"Okay. I’m not going to say that you like him or that he likes you…" Sugawara started.

"But, if you were to like him, the feeling would probably be mutual." Daichi finished.

Kageyama looked between the two of them. “Did you practice that?”

"Ugh. Fine. Be obtuse. Just know that if you want to tell us, we’re totally cool with it, okay?"

Kageyama opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when he heard the seat to his left being pulled out.

"Whose stuff is this?"

He looked up into Tsukishima’s shadowy face and stammered, “Uh, it’s my friend Hinata’s.”

Tsukishima pursed his lips and his brows furrowed. After a few moments, he shrugged, face going impassive once again.

Yamaguchi suddenly appeared standing next to his usual spot. “You can take my seat, Tsukki!”

He shook his head. “I’ll be alright.” He walked away to grab a chair from another table, confusing Kageyama with how compliant he was being.

Yamaguchi sunk into his seat, letting out a massive yawn.

"Where were the two of you?" Sugawara asked, seemingly dropping the previous subject.

Yamaguchi rubbed his eyes, bags darker than ever. “Ah, sorry guys. I just woke up maybe half an hour ago. Tsukki shut off my alarm…”

Tsukishima pulled his extra seat up to the edge of the table closest to Yamaguchi. “Our classes were cancelled. You didn’t need to get up.” Tsukishima pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Besides, you were up too late last night. You needed the sleep.”

Yamaguchi gave him a reluctant, soft smile while Kageyama’s head reeled over the fact that Tsukishima held compassion for another human being.

"Wow, you guys-" Tanaka began, but he stopped when he saw Hinata come skipping up to the table.

Kageyama looked up at him over his shoulder. He was glancing nervously over at Tsukishima, and to Kageyama’s surprise, the tall blond was actually acknowledging him.

"Are you-?"

"Uh, Kageyama? I think I’m gonna head back to the dorm after all. I left my laptop there, and it’s got my notes and stuff on it, so… See you tonight, yeah?" He gave him a small wave and a smile before turning to the others. "It’s nice to meet you guys! Maybe I can come back here and study for real some time, yeah?"

They all smiled back at him. “Of course! Anytime!”

Hinata said goodbye one last time before pulling his hat back on, grabbing his things and leaving.

"Oh, I do hope he comes back sometime…"

"I’m sure he will," Kageyama muttered absentmindedly. He was totally confused by the way Hinata left so quickly.

Tsukishima shifted back into his normal seat before turning to Kageyama. “Is that your roommate?”

Kageyama nodded. “Why?”

"He sits next to me in the psychology class I’m usually in right now."

Tanaka nearly knocked over his seat jumping to his feet. “You mean you knew this guy the whole time and you never told us!?”

Tsukishima blinked. “Why is that a big deal?”

"We’ve been trying to find this guy behind Kageyama’s back for weeks! You could’ve at least pitched in a few times to help!"

"You act like I listen to your conversations."

Kageyama rolled his eyes. He nearly jerked back in surprise when his phone buzzed in his front pocket. Ignoring the incessant bickering of his friends, he opened his new text message. It was from Hinata.

“ _Hey, sorry to bolt. That guy sits next to me in my psych class and he’s really tall and intimidating and I probably wouldn’t have gotten any studying done because I would get nervous and my stomach would hurt and. Yeah. You know what happens when I’m nervous. I’ll visit your group some other time, when I DON’T have to study anything, okay?_ ”

Kageyama chuckled under his breath. “ _You should_ ," he replied. He scrolled through the messages Hinata had sent him an hour ago, laughing at (and definitely saving) a few of the selfies he had taken with the pen-stealing crow.

"Kageyama?"

His eyes flicked up from his phone to find that Sugawara had been watching him.

Sugawara kept his voice low when he said, “You should still ask him to come, okay?”

Kageyama lowered his voice even further when he replied, “I might.”


	4. Kageyama is an Idiot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooo sorry this took so long!! Lots of stuff has been going on lately and frankly, I was in a writing rut. But hey!! Hopefully this chapter makes up for the wait maybe? Possibly? I hope so!! Please just take this chapter away, I'm so tired of all the trouble it's given me.

“ _Hey remember to get me pork buns on the way back ok”_

Kageyama rolled his eyes, hitching his backpack up a little higher on his shoulder. He was already on his way to the convenience store when Hinata texted him. 

“ _I thought we agreed on one pork bun._ ” 

“ _The price of me getting you coffee has gone up_ ” 

He chuckled softly despite himself, pocketing his phone and hurrying to pull on his gloves before frostbite completely set into his hands. It wasn’t a long walk to the shop, but in this weather, a walk from one building to its neighbor was too long. 

Thankfully, before his body was able to freeze over, he spotted the place Hinata had long ago deemed “the place with the best pork buns ever made,” and his pace quickened. He bustled into the door, pulling the hood of his jacket off of his head and reveling in the warmth of the room. 

A quick glance around the room showed it was mostly empty, which was no surprise with how nasty the weather was being. The ever-present spiky-haired blond man leaned against the counter, so uninterested in anything that wasn’t his phone that he failed to greet Kageyama when he entered. He didn’t really mind; he wasn’t particularly in the mood to chat. 

The events of the past two days, however insignificant they may seem to anyone else, wouldn't stop rattling around in his brain. Kageyama wasn't exactly one to dwell in his thoughts, especially when it comes to Hinata, who's much easier to deal with when you don't really question his actions. But, today, he just couldn't bring himself to pay attention to what was going on around him, opting instead to just drift through whatever menial tasks he had to accomplish while he kept his mind preoccupied with trying to figure out why the hell he couldn’t stop thinking about his pain-in-the-ass roommate. 

He shuffled up towards the register, eyes scanning the rack to the right containing the fresh food items. He knew where they kept the pork buns- he and Hinata came here more times than he’d like to admit to avoid using up their cafeteria allowances any quicker than they already were- but still he searched the racks absentmindedly. The cashier finally raised his head from where it was previously glued to his phone and gave Kageyama a suspicious glance before seeming to recognize him. He gave the younger man a lopsided smile before leaning on the counter. 

“Hey kid, where’s your boyfriend?” 

Kageyama froze, face flushing a ridiculously deep shade of red. The cashier obviously got the reaction he has hoped for, judging by his mischievous smirk and his poorly-contained laughter. 

“Wh- he’s- I’m-” Kageyama choked on his words, mind suddenly racing far too fast for him to keep up. 

The smirk on the cashier’s face grew wider and wider, showing Kageyama that he was enjoying this far too much. Chuckling, he held up his hands in an attempt to calm the still-steaming and still-sputtering boy in front of him. “Calm down, calm down. I was just asking, didn’t mean for you to get worked up about your love life.” 

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Kageyama managed to blurt out. Unfortunately, it was more of an embarrassed screech than a calm statement, and he caught the attention of a few of the other customers around him. He really needed to work on volume control. 

The cashier was nearly doubled over, booming laughter wracking his entire body. He slapped his desk a few times for good measure. Kageyama wanted to slap HIM. 

“He’s not my boyfriend…” Kageyama repeated, albeit much quieter than last time as he was more mindful of his surroundings. 

The cashier grinned and straightened up. “Alright, alright, whatever you say.” 

Kageyama pouted childishly, taking a quick glance at the employee’s name tag. He made a mental note to avoid coming around whenever he saw that Keishin Ukai was on the clock. 

Kageyama stared up at him awkwardly. Ukai looked back at him silently. 

They opened their mouths at the same time. 

“So, are you going to get anything or-” 

“He’s just my roommate, you know.” 

Ukai stared. 

“I, I mean-” Kageyama started, the fire in him subsiding into nerves when he realized he didn’t really know what he was trying to say. “He’s- I mean, we go to college together, we’re- we’re dorm mates.” 

“Okay…” Ukai smirked again, obviously unimpressed. 

“Yeah.” 

“… Are you gonna buy anything, or-?” 

“Oh! Uh,” Kageyama had almost forgotten why he had came there. “Six pork buns.” He figured he could probably save some for himself and Hinata later, if the redhead didn’t tear his greedy fingers into them before he had a chance to put them in their small refrigerator. 

Ukai shoved himself away from the counter with finesse only someone completely apathetic could manage. “So, you guys have company over then?” He said as he grabbed some steaming pork buns from the rack and put them in three small boxes. 

Kageyama shook his head. “No? Why do you say that?” 

“Well,” Ukai sauntered back to the cash register, “there are six buns, and usually people don’t get more than two if they aren’t sharing.” He dropped the boxes on the counter in front of Kageyama, bagging them. “This it?” 

He nodded once, quick and distracted. “Who said I’m sharing?” 

Ukai rolled his eyes. “That’ll be 315¥, please.” Kageyama handed him the money. “There are six pork buns here. Of course you’re sharing, and if it’s just you and your roommate, you’re probably sharing with him. And doesn’t that seem more like something couples would do?” 

Kageyama’s face blanched. 

“They’re for me.” 

“All of them?” Ukai looked skeptical. 

“All of them.” 

“You’re buying six pork buns to eat all by yourself.” 

“That’s right.” 

“You’re eating all of these?” 

“That is what I said.” 

“They don’t really have a good shelf life, you know. You can’t exactly keep them in the fridge for more than a couple days.” 

“Who said I’m keeping them in a fridge?” Kageyama snapped, once again exposing his lack of a brain-to-mouth filter. 

Ukai stared at him blankly. 

“You’re buying six pork buns, at five in the evening, you’re not going to share them with anyone, and you’re not keeping any in the fridge?” 

“U-uh…” Kageyama could feel sweat bead up on the back of his neck. Why, exactly, was he doing this? Why was he fighting this guy? Who knew. Kageyama sure didn’t. “Yes?” 

“So, you’re just gonna eat all of these tonight, yeah?” 

“Wh- What else would I do with them?” Kageyama crossed his arms in fake indignance. He was trying really hard not to just bolt out of the store and never come back. 

“They’re pretty big.” 

“I can handle it.” 

“Prove it.” 

Kageyama’s eyes widened and he’s pretty sure his face paled just a tiny bit more. He didn’t plan on the guy blatantly challenging him like that. What was the guy even getting from this? Some sick pleasure from knowing that he could get some random guy riled up? Kageyama knew he should just walk away. 

Kageyama looked down at the boxes on the counter and slowly opened one. 

They DID look pretty big. Kageyama wasn’t sure he could finish all of one so soon after eating at the library. But he was never one to back down from a challenge, especially one so incredibly asinine and avoidable. He had to try. 

Making direct eye contact, he shakily picked up a single pork bun and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. 

It was then that Kageyama remembered they were literally steaming. 

His eyes began to water in pain- he hadn’t exactly expected it to be hot, despite watching Ukai grab them straight out of a stand so hot it should be called an oven. 

Ukai’s eyebrows raised to his hairline as he openly gaped at the idiot before him. 

Kageyama grabbed his paper bag roughly and practically sprinted to the door. 

“Have a nice day!” The spiky-haired nuisance called after him, foregoing any sort of attempt to contain his raucous laughter. 

Kageyama tried to yell a few choice expletives at him, but with so much pork bun in his mouth it simply came out as, “Fhhh yhuu.” 

After slamming the door shut, Kageyama made a beeline for the nearest trash can. He spit the steaming pork bun into it, mourning the wasting of his money and welcoming the cold air into his burning mouth. 

As the cold slowly seeped into his skin and he wiped the quickly freezing tears that had managed to spill over, he cringed down at the paper bag in his hands. 

Hey, at least he thought to get six. What difference would one less make? 

~~~~~~~ 

Hinata nearly jumped out of his skin when Kageyama stormed into their dorm room. 

“Jesus!” He clutched at his chest somewhat over-dramatically, watching Kageyama stalk over to his desk and shed his backpack and coat. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” When Kageyama failed to acknowledge him, he continued, leaning in towards his roommate. “I could have DIED just now!” 

Kageyama looked over his shoulder at the smaller boy and rolled his eyes. “Yeah? Well, I probably have third degree burns in my mouth. I guess that makes us even.” 

Hinata quirked his head, swinging his legs over the side of his bed to face Kageyama more directly. “Huh? What does that mean?” 

Instead of answering Hinata’s question, he turned to face him with his arm outstretched, offering up the paper bag he had brought in with him. 

“What is- Oh!” Hinata threw his tangled covers from his lap and jumped up in excitement. “Sweet! I didn’t think you would actually get any!” He surged forward to take the bag from Kageyama’s grip. 

“Hey, calm down, some of those are mine, too.” Kageyama collapsed onto his bed, glad to finally be back in his dorm. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Hinata waved a dismissive hand at him, not even looking up from the box he was tearing into. “Wait…” 

“Huh?” Kageyama glanced at him from his position leaning back on the bed. “What’s wrong?” 

“I thought that these things came in boxes of two, but this one only has one…” 

Kageyama straightened up a fraction. “Oh. Yeah. They do. I… I ate one.” 

“Ah, that’s what you burned your mouth on? You know they’re hot, right?” Hinata smirked down at him. 

Kageyama scowled. “Of course I do.” He averted his gaze and mumbled, “I just forgot is all…” 

Hinata grinned, flopping gracelessly onto his bed once more and plucking a bun from its box. He sunk his teeth into it, practically moaning as he swallowed. “Oh my god,” he said, drawing out the last word, “these things are amazing.” 

Kageyama sat up slightly, feeling heat rise in his cheeks. “Hm.” 

“Kageyama?” Hinata leaned to his side, a sincere look in his eyes as he looked him in the face. 

“Yeah?” 

“If I die, bury me with like, fifty of these, okay?” 

Kageyama scowled. “Dude.” 

“I’m serious. I want to experience these all the way to the grave.” He fell onto his back, chuckling quietly and gazing at the bun in his hand with a look that could only be described as loving. 

Kageyama stared at him. 

He felt ridiculous. He couldn’t believe that this was the idiot he couldn’t take his mind off of. This was the guy that he had thought about all day, the guy that had him so flustered he lost his ability to control his volume. The guy his friends were convinced he was infatuated with. 

The guy that was wearing another one of his sweaters. 

Once again, the sudden revelation brought the raven haired boy’s train of thought to a screeching halt, and he had no idea why. 

This one fit him a little bit better, a dead giveaway that it was one that was a little snug on Kageyama on a good day. It was shucked up a little, exposing his abdomen. His legs were tangled up in his sheets, not completely on him and not completely off. His laptop was abandoned near his feet, the psychology page pulled up on the screen all but forgotten. His hair was in complete disarray, splayed out on his pillow. Kageyama realized that it wasn’t just the sweater that had him derailed; the whole boy was a walking, talking distracting mess. 

But the biggest distraction of all was the look of complete contentment on his face. Kageyama was mesmerized. 

Kageyama, as it turns out, loses the ability to think when he’s mesmerized. 

“Hinata.” 

“Hm?” Hinata glanced over at Kageyama to see him sit up stark straight. He followed his lead, curious. “What’s up?” 

“Have you heard of that party that’s happening on Saturday? It’s at some frat house, I- uh, shit, I can’t really remember-” 

“Oh yeah! I know what you’re talking about. My friend Nishinoya is in that frat!” 

Kageyama nodded, trying to remember if he had ever met someone named Nishinoya. “Good. Um.” He suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing he had no idea what he was going to say. He had no game plan for this. “Are you, uh, are you thinking of going?” 

Hinata cocked his head, thinking. “Well, I was invited, but I wasn’t really sure if I would.” 

“Well. Um. Do you think…” Kageyama paused, the sudden silence awkward and heavy between the two of them. “Would you maybe want to- I mean, do you maybe-” 

“Yes?” Hinata interrupted, drawing out the syllables in obvious annoyance. 

“Do you think you’d want to go with me?” 

Hinata looked shocked, face ever-so-slightly red. 

Kageyama started to panic. 

“I mean, only if you want to. I was going alone and like, I figured maybe, if you were going alone too or something, you might want to, but if I’m wrong I mean-” 

“Sure.” 

“Huh?” 

“Sure.” Hinata was quiet, and the flush was moving up his face and all the way to the tips of his ears. 

Kageyama still wasn’t sure if he heard him correctly. 

“Seriously?” 

“Yeah. I mean, yes!” Hinata looked like he was fighting off a smile. 

Kageyama felt his own lips quirk. “Cool.” 

Hinata seemed to break at that, his grin growing so wide it nearly split his face in two. 

Kageyama’s stomach flipped. 

Weird. 

He was going to have to message Sugawara about this later.


	5. A Different Direction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terribly sorry it took so long, but hey! It's up before July is over! This is mostly friendly shenanigans, but it has to do with later on in the story, I promise!! I hope you like it, because it's sure been bothering me, ahaha! Also, this chapter is one where the T rating kinda comes in handy, just a little bit. Thank you all so much for your continued support, and all the nice messages I've been getting. You're all great!! Once again, if you'd like to get in touch with me, feel free to message me on tumblr (I'm batsghoulsandghosties on there!)

“Kageyama Tobio…”

Sugawara Koushi was turned sideways in his chair, body and eyes directed towards Kageyama. His gaze was steely, expression so serious that Kageyama practically shook, he was so nervous. 

“Y-Yes?” He averted his eyes, unable to meet Sugawara’s look head-on.

“I am…” Kageyama squeezed his eyes shut, unsure of what the usually calm man was about to do. “So proud of you!”

He threw his arms around the raven-haired boy’s neck, hugging him so tightly he nearly pulled him from his seat. Kageyama’s eyes flew open and he whipped his arms forward to brace himself on the back and the bottom of Sugawara’s chair. He could feel the heat rising high on his face as he looked to the rest of his friends, clearly bewildered.

He saw Daichi shrug, grin cutting sharply across his face.

“Um, thanks?” He patted Sugawara’s back awkwardly, knowing better than to pull away from his grip before Sugawara was ready to let go. 

“I wasn’t sure you would even do it! I mean, I figured you’d think about it, but honestly it was kind of a long shot!” His grip slackened a small fraction as he leaned back to grin at Daichi. “Didn’t I say I might have to do something about that?” Kageyama’s face fell.

Daichi’s smile softened as he nodded at Sugawara. “You did.”

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘do something about’-”

“Hey!” Sugawara interrupted, looking back at Kageyama. “I didn’t have to in the end, did I?” He squeezed Kageyama close to him once again. “I am so, so proud of you!” 

Kageyama shifted as best he could under Sugawara’s grip, unaccustomed and not entirely comfortable with so much prolonged physical contact. “Okay, okay.” He placed his hand on Sugawara’s shoulder blade, patting it a tad bit more forcefully this time. “That’s enough.”

“Alright.” Sugawara pulled away, rolling his eyes dramatically and letting out a long-suffering sigh. “I’m just really happy you asked him to go with you.” He smiled softly at Kageyama, squeezing his shoulder once more before drawing away completely. 

“You’re such a mom.” Tsukishima remarked from his corner of the table. Kageyama let out a sharp bark of laughter, suddenly realizing just how mothering the older man was.

Yamaguchi chuckled. “You’re so right, Tsukki.”

“I just want what’s best for my darling children.” Sugawara pinched Kageyama’s cheek like a loving mother and the table broke out in laughter.

“H-hey, if Sugawara’s the mom, wouldn’t that make Daichi the dad?” Tanaka struggled to get out through his fit of what could only be described as giggles.

“Hey!” Daichi shoved at him, the mock-indignance in his voice marred with the occasional suppressed chuckle.

“He totally is!” Kageyama said, grinning from ear to ear.

Daichi fake-pouted, his red cheeks and twitching lips giving away his amusement. “Hey, shut up, will you?”

“Nope! Your turn to be laughed at now,” Sugawara’s grin was absolutely devilish as he winked at Daichi, “… Daddy.”

The table went silent.

Daichi somehow paled and flushed at the same time.

Sugawara seemed not to notice the shocked stare the others were giving him; all of his attention was focused on the nervous man shifting before him. “Huh?” He leaned forward over the table, causing Daichi to jerk back violently. “What’s wrong, Dai? Did I say something that-” As Sugawara moved closer still and reached for Daichi’s hand, the taller man stood suddenly, nearly overturning his chair.

“Um.” His eyes flickered across his friends’ faces one by one before settling on Sugawara’s, looking unfocused and uncomfortable. Kageyama vaguely noticed the awkward, hunched-over way Daichi was pressing himself against the table. “I’ve- uh, I gotta go.”

He rushed to the door of the study room, a slight limp in his gait, and ran down the hall into the main room of the library.

Sugawara’s face fell, looking totally dejected. “What was that?” he mumbled before turning to the rest of the group. “Was it something I said?”

“Kind of.” Tsukishima said bluntly.

Sugawara’s face fell almost impossibly further.

When Tsukishima saw his reaction he immediately began to backtrack.

“Well, I mean. Don’t be upset or anything. He wasn’t.” When Sugawara blinked up at him, confused, he started to explain. “He wasn’t angry at you, he just nearly popped a bon-”

“Tsukki, hush!” Yamaguchi practically dove across the tabletop to clamp his hands over the taller boy’s mouth.

Unfortunately, despite Yamaguchi’s attempts, the deed was already done, and Sugawara got the gist of what he had to say.

“Oh.” Sugawara seemed to be frozen in place, and Kageyama was nearly worried something was physically wrong with the older man when his eyes grew wide enough to rival dinnerplates. “Oh, oh my god.” He buried his head in his hands, but the red creeping up his face and neck was still clearly visible, and almost looked painful. Kageyama could’ve sworn that he could feel the heat of it from where he was sitting. “Oh lord.”

Tsukishima gently pulled Yamaguchi’s hands from their place on his mouth. “Well, I mean, you can take it as a compliment. Plus, I’d say he was maybe half-hard at best-”

“Tsukki no!” Yamaguchi practically hissed, pushing against the blond boy’s hand in an attempt to silence him once again for Sugawara’s sake.

“Hey, I could see it pretty clearly from here, I’m just telling the truth.” Tsukishima replied casually, ignoring the low, steady noise that sounded much like air escaping a tire that Sugawara was emitting.

“Stop staring at Daichi’s crotch and you won’t need to see it!” Yamaguchi hissed once more, glancing nervously at Sugawara with a look of concern clear on his features.

“I wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t made such a scene-”

This time, it was Sugawara that cut Tsukishima off, ceasing his wounded-animal noises and bursting out in a loud groan. “Okay! It’s okay! Things are fine!”

Kageyama patted his back awkwardly, trying to help despite his history of being piss-poor at comforting.

Tanaka let out a low whistle, breaking his (rather surprising) silence. “Wow, who would’a known Daichi had a daddy kink.”

Sugawara practically toppled his chair in tearing away from the table. “Alright, I think I need to go!” Kageyama got one last look at his face- his fair hair was making the crimson of his cheeks and ears all the more noticeable- before he flew like a bat out of hell out of the study room, turning in a pointedly different direction than Daichi had in his own escape before slipping out of sight.

Tanaka started to laugh, but Kageyama shut him up with a well-placed kick to the shin.

“Shit, man, I was just trying to ease the tension!” He drew his leg up into Daichi’s vacated seat, rubbing his leg like Kageyama had injured him much more than he actually had. In truth, his ego was probably more bruised than his leg.

“Probably not the best time for a ‘good old-fashioned tension-easing’ Tanaka joke.” Tsukishima said, finally releasing Yamaguchi’s hands as if he had forgotten he was holding them.

Tanaka practically growled. “Really? Now, you’re one to talk.” Tsukishima shrugged, needlessly adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Tanaka always hated that move, but refrained from commenting further, as he knew Kageyama was poised to strike his other leg, and Kageyama was not very forgiving a second time around.

Yamaguchi wrung his hands nervously, a habit that mirrored the same motion Tsukishima did so often. “You think he- they’re gonna be alright?” He looked at Kageyama expectantly, as if he might know how the situation would turn out. Thankfully, Tanaka answered in his place.

“Yeah, they’ll be fine. Nothing those two can’t handle.” He turned, facing Kageyama as well. “I just can't believe he called him 'daddy'," he chuckled. "Do you think that soon those two will just… y’know, bite the bullet soon? Get it over with?”

“Huh?” Kageyama replied gracefully, completely unsure of what Tanaka might be talking about.

“You aren’t serious.” Tanaka deadpanned, looking at Kageyama as if he were the biggest idiot he had ever seen. “I mean, do you think that- well, you think they’ll finally just talk about what’s… uh, what’s like. Going on between the two of them.” At the sight of Kageyama’s still-confused face, he scowled. “Y’know what, screw it. Forget it. New topic.” He waved his hands about as if he were banishing any thoughts of what had just transpired from the table.

Kageyama scowled- his knee-jerk reaction to most inconveniences be they minor or major- but allowed the conversation to drop before learning what it was that he was apparently missing.

Thankfully, so did Tsukishima, after he gave Kageyama a side-long glance that clearly read somewhere along the lines of “I know something you don’t” or maybe “You’re an idiot and I find that amusing”. He was quite good at those sorts of looks.

Kageyama scoffed, repressing the urge to stick his tongue out. He wasn’t a child. Or Hinata. Hinata would totally do that.

His scowl, though almost imperceptibly, lessened just a fraction.

He glanced back at Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, who had begun to talk about some dinosaur sci-fi flick they were planning to watch together. As he leaned on his elbow, eavesdropping on their conversation and abandoning any pretense of studying for what must’ve been the fifth day in a row, he just barely saw Tanaka tense up out of the corner of his eye. Turning to investigate, he caught sight of a woman with rather shiny black hair and glasses sweep past their table towards one occupied solely by the blonde girl he had seen a few days earlier. He didn’t see what would warrant such a reaction from Tanaka, who looked as if he was keeping himself from jolting out of his seat purely by his strongest resource of willpower, but then realization dawned on him.

“Tanaka, wasn’t that Kiyoko?”

Tanaka’s eyes didn’t move from the book he had laid out in front of him, like he was focusing all his attention on studying (which, Kageyama knew from experience only happened in dire situations), when he responded. “Who? I wasn’t looking.”

Kageyama cocked his head. “Yes you were?”

“Nope, I’m studying.”

“But… Your book is upside down?”

“I’m practicing reading things upside down.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “You never know what sort of skills one might need in this day and age.”

“Tanaka, did something happen between you and Kiyoko?”

Tanaka inhaled, glanced behind him, and then exhaled with a long-suffering sigh. “Geez, alright. Nothing happened, okay? She turned down my invitation, said she was already going with someone. That’s it.”

“Oh, uh… I’m…” Kageyama raised his hand, ready to pat Tanaka on his shoulder, but stopped short when he realized he was sitting too far away for it to be casual and reassuring. “Sorry, I guess?”

Tanaka rolled his eyes. “Listen, I’m fine. Just, a little worried is all, and Sugawara already told me to dial it down on, y’know, my ‘overprotective tendencies’. I’m hoping she just didn’t end up with a creep, is all.”

Kageyama nodded. “That’s good, then. I mean, that nothing really big happened.” He tapped his fingernails nervously on the table, struggling to find what to say next. “So, um, why’d you get so nervous when she passed by?”

He pouted, ego bruised once more. “Wouldn’t you be fidgety around someone who just turned you down? I mean, she’s still my friend and all, and I’d definitely lay down my life for her if I needed to,” Kageyama scrunched up his nose at that, “but it’s probably gonna be awkward for me if I see her out somewhere with the guy she’s going to the party with.” He glanced around the room once more before relaxing completely. “Look’s like he’s not with her now, so we’re good.” He gave Kageyama a look that probably meant something like “time for another topic change”, and Kageyama was definitely going to jump at that chance.

“So, ah…” He searched desperately for a new topic, but could come up with nothing other than the party on saturday. This is why everyone else got to direct the conversation flow- he was seriously flopping without Sugawara and Daichi to steer it along. “Did you… Did you find anyone else to go with?”

Tanaka perked up a little bit at the question. “Yeah! Ennoshita. You know him, right? He was already going, so like, we figured we’d go together, just so we both had someone to hang out with.”

The corner of Kageyama’s mouth quirked a tiny bit.

Tanaka caught it instantly. “Dude. No.”

Kageyama began to grin. 

“Dude! No! We’re like, going together, but not like, _together_ together!”

His grin widened.

“Stop it dude, your smile is fuckin’ creepy!” He threw his pencil towards Kageyama, who frowned when he had to catch his empty coffee cup from toppling over the side of the table when it got caught in the cross-fire. 

“What, so it’s okay when I’m the one getting laughed at for this stuff?”

“Well, yeah?” Tanaka smirked. “It’s funny to laugh at you because you get really defensive, and you actually like the guy you’re going with!”

Kageyama’s face reddened, though it could have been from either embarrassment or rage. “And you’re not getting defensive? How do I know you’re not totally in love with Ennoshita, huh?”

“Because I’m not-” Tanaka was cut off by a chime from his phone. Before he could reach it, however, Kageyama managed to snatch it away. One look at the screen had him grinning wickedly.

“So, you and ‘Chikara’ are going out to eat tonight?” Kageyama raised an eyebrow.

Tanaka dove at Kageyama to grab back his phone before sheepishly tucking it into his pocket. “It’s a sports bar.” 

When Kageyama looked extremely unimpressed, he continued, rolling his eyes. “A couple of his friends are gonna be there. He just wanted to see if I would want to come along.” Kageyama could’ve sworn he saw a slight blush on Tanaka’s face as he gathered his things. “I gotta head that way anyway, so I’m out. And don’t read anymore of my fuckin’ texts! Who knows what you might see.” He waggled his eyebrows salaciously as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

As he began to walk away, Kageyama called after him. “Hey, I didn’t even unlock it! The front screen is fair game!”

“Still dangerous!” Tanaka declared, then he disappeared into the main library.

Kageyama slumped back into his seat, feeling the tension of having to carry on such a conversation. He really hoped Sugawara and Daichi got over whatever they were going through fast, because while he genuinely valued their friendship, he also genuinely valued their ability to keep a chat going.

While he reached into his coat pocket for his phone, he glanced up to see Yamaguchi and Tsukishima looking at him.

“Uh?” He said, confused by the sudden attention.

Tsukishima leaned on his elbows, facing him. “So, settle an argument for us, yeah?”

Kageyama frowned; he was not ready for more conflict.

“Which is better, a velociraptor or a tyrannosaurus rex? Yama here thinks it’s the velociraptor, which I think certainly has it’s good points, but I have to say it’s the T-rex.”

~~~~~~~

Hinata was pacing the floor, and probably had been for upwards of thirty minutes, when he finally decided that burning tracks into the old floor was in no way helpful in his situation (or the floor’s, which was, in all honesty, just doing it’s job). With the nervous energy coursing through his limbs, though, it was almost physically impossible for him to actually sit down, or stand still, so he was basically stuck between either bouncing his leg enough that it shook his entire bed (and had his neighbors banging on the wall for him to stop) or further destroying the graying linoleum of his dorm room.

Kageyama would almost certainly comment on something like that. Like he wasn’t the one causing all this! 

Hinata bit his lip and dug his nails into the side of his thigh in an attempt to get himself to sit still. The only thing he succeeded in doing was leaving little crescent-moon indentations in his leg and making his lower lip a tad bit swollen. He glanced at the digital clock on Kageyama’s bedside drawer (Hinata honestly had no idea where his own alarm clock went, though he had the sneaking suspicion it was buried under the dirty clothes pile in his closet, if the muffled clock noises he always heard in the morning were anything to go by). It would probably be about an hour before Kageyama returned.

He needed to get all this nervous energy out before the taller boy returned, or he would almost certainly annoy Kageyama to no end. Which, normally, would be no problem- in fact, at any other time on any other day he would probably enjoy the hell out of it- but today it was most certainly a problem, and Hinata couldn’t quite understand why, and-

Hinata groaned loudly, threw on his coat and grabbed his phone. He needed to get out of that tiny dorm room before he exploded. He shot off two short texts, one to Nishinoya and the other to his friend Kenma, and out the door he went.


	6. Of Course

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit I'll bet you're surprised im updating this
> 
> There are no words to say how sorry I am about abandoning this for a FULL YEAR. I figured I'd update it during my senior year, but seeing as I'm starting college in... Eight days, looks like that didn't happen.... I really am so sorry it took forever!! Senior year was the busiest year of my LIFE.   
> I wish I could've made this chapter a little more... Fluffy I guess? But this was how it was planned before the enormous hiatus, so again I'm really sorry. At least it's on the longer side! If ya haven't noticed, most of this fic focuses on the friendship aspect and tries to develope the main relationship through talking about it, so I hope I do right by it!!! Again, so sorry!!!!

“Kozume…” Hinata whined into the phone receiver, drawing out every syllable. “Where are you?”

He heard a huff of exasperation on the other side of the line. “I’m like, five minutes away. Calm down.”

“But Nishinoya isn’t here yet and it’s like negative twelve degrees out and I don’t want to go in the cafe alone! What if you guys don’t see me in there and you just leave?! That would be-”

“Why would I leave? I know you’re there, I’m talking to you right now.” 

“It sounds like something you’d do!” Hinata pouted at no one in particular. He tamped down on the slush beside his feet and tried desperately to ignore the numbness of his toes and the dull throb of his likely frostbitten limbs. Why did he ride a bike everywhere? This was hellish. He promised himself right then and there that he would be getting a bus pass in the near future. (Though, judging on the amount of times he told himself he was going to get one if he remembered, he would not be getting a bus pass for the foreseeable future.)

“Shut up.” Hinata cringed as the sound of fabric moving over Kenma’s receiver blared in his ear. “God, remind me why I’m coming to help you when it’s this cold out?”

“Because you’re one of my best friends in the world and you care for my wellbeing?”

“Hm.”

“And…” Hinata drawled, “because every time you want to talk about Kuroo I listen without complaining?”

“...You’re the worst. I’ll be there in three.”

Hinata grinned from ear to ear (which he immediately regretted, as his chapped lips gave him quite a bit of hell for that action). “Thanks!”

Kenma hung up before he could hear it, but Hinata was sure he could feel how thankful he was anyway.

He stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, tucking his chin into the upturned collar of his thin coat. He desperately needed to go shopping for some winter clothes, he thought idly to himself. Unfortunately, thinking about winter clothes made him think of sweaters and sweatshirts, which only served to remind him of how most of his winter wardrobe was made up of garments he’d ferreted away from Kageyama, which was exactly the reason why he was out here in negative degree weather in the first place. Well, sort of. One of the reasons. But it’s a big reason!

He had muttered most of that internal dialogue out loud, nearly frightening a couple walking out of the cafe behind him, when he saw a shock of ridiculously styled blonde hair poking out from beneath a thick woolen hat. 

“Nishinoya!” He called, waving his arms about like mad in an attempt to catch the other man’s attention.

Luckily, Hinata was hard to ignore on a normal day, and Nishinoya found him immediately in the crowd. 

Nishinoya’s pace quickened when he was within talking distance of Hinata and nearly slammed into him in an attempt to get himself and his friend into the door. “Dude, oh my god, get inside, you’re going to die!”

“We can go inside in just a sec, I wanna wait for Kenma!” Hinata flashed him a small grin, careful to avoid hurting his chapped lips any more than he already has.

“Well, fuck that.” Nishinoya pushed past Hinata, turning around briefly to say, “I’m going to save a table. Don’t blame me when you turn into an ice sickle.”

~~~~~~~

Luckily for Hinata, Kenma came only four minutes after Nishinoya (which was much longer than his predicted time of arrival, but Hinata didn’t feel like commenting on it at the time. He had much more important matters to attend to.) Nishinoya had indeed saved a table, and after they had all ordered a drink of their choosing, they all settled down around it.

Hinata sunk down into his seat, reveling in the warmth of the room and the latte clasped in his frostbitten hands. Kenma and Nishinoya had already shrugged off their winter coats, but Hinata was too comfortable to even keep his eyes open, much less move. 

“Hinata.”

“Hmm?” He muttered, uninterested in anything that wasn’t absorbing heat at the moment.

“Any particular reason you’ve dragged us out to an overcrowded cafe in the middle of the fucking Arctic tundra?” Nishinoya prodded him with his foot, frowning. “I have a paper to write, y’know. You’re taking away precious time from my studies.”

“Would you be writing it now if you weren’t here?” Kenma mumbled, sipping at his coffee.

Nishinoya ignored him. “My academic career is suffering and it’s all your fault, Hinata. I hope you’re happy.”

“You wouldn’t be writing it, anyway.” Hinata finally lurched up into a normal sitting position in his seat and rolled his eyes.

“I mean, duh, but in the time that I spend here today, the hypothetical me that’s still at home might finally get that surge of energy to write that eight page essay due monday. Or at least come up with a topic.” Nishinoya leaned his elbows against the table, tapping his foot manically against the floor. 

“Noya, you’ve had- what, a month?!” Hinata balked at him. He really had no right to be surprised, given his own questionable academic background, but that didn’t stop him.

“Let the record show that I’ve never claimed to be on the honor roll, I just said that this meeting might lower the odds even more.” He rested his chin on his hands, his foot-tapping increasing in speed. After a few moments of hesitation, he slammed his hands down on the wobbling table and sat a fraction higher in his seat. 

“Alright! Out with it! Why are we here?”

“Geez, okay! Calm down!” Hinata bristled. “Well, this is about…” Hinata trailed off.

Nishinoya’s brows furrowed in irritation as he made a “get on with it” gesture, while Kenma looked on in what seemed to be mild interest.

“It’s about… Kageyama.”

The other two just stared.

After a moment, Nishinoya prompted, “...And?”

Hinata bristled once again, pounding his fist against the table. “What do you mean, ‘and’?! You asked what I wanted to talk about and I told you!”

Nishinoya rolled his eyes. “Well, duh? I figured it’d be about him. When are you not talking about that idiot?”

“Like, all the time!”

“Name one day this week you went without gushing about him to me.” Nishinoya leaned back in his chair dangerously, and the way Hinata was eyeing him anyone could tell that he wanted nothing more than to push him over at that moment.

“Uh, every day? All we talked about on Monday was volleyball!”

“And you mentioned how Kageyama used to play in high school at least twelve times!”

“Shouyou is incredibly focused.” Kenma mumbled. It would’ve sounded more like a compliment had he not condescendingly patted the top of Hinata’s head like he was a well-behaving dog.

Hinata swatted his friend’s hand away and pouted, slumping against the back of his chair. “Why’d you even come if you just knew that I’d talk about Kageyama, huh?”

“Because you’re my friend you idiot, and the lust you hold for your weird roommate doesn’t change that.” Nishinoya rolled his eyes and attempted to pat Hinata’s head in the same fashion Kenma did moments ago. Hinata smacked his hand before it could reach him.

“Shut up! I am not ‘lusting’ after my roommate!” Hinata said much too loudly for them to be in a public place. The back of his neck started to feel hot from the pointed stares he was receiving from other patrons of the cafe.

Nishinoya leaned his elbows against the table, smirking. “Not even a little bit? I find that hard to believe.”

“Sh-shut up!” He stuttered once more, glancing around the room. He leaned in close to his friends, watching his volume. “I’m not ‘lusting’ after him, I’m just-”

“Lying isn’t polite.” Kenma said, pulling out his cellphone. Hinata bristled.

“I’m not lying!” he exclaimed, “I’m just… ugh! I don’t know!” Hinata groaned, burying his head in his hands. “He makes me so confused,” he continued, slightly muffled against the table top.

“What’s with the confusion?” Nishinoya asked, leaning his elbows against the table. 

“That’s just it! I don’t know!” Hinata propped his chin up on his folded arms, staring forlornly at the napkin holder situated in front of him. “I know I like to rile him up and I argue with him all the time, but at the same time, we agree on a lot of different things, and we like the same foods and hobbies and whenever we talk I just get totally wrapped up in what we’re talking about to the point where I don’t want the conversation to end even if it’s a totally meaningless topic, and everytime I get around him my stomach ties up in knots like it does before a big game, but not in a bad way like it is when I’m nervous about a match but still in a kinda nervous way, but I’m okay with it, and-”

“Woah woah woah, take a breath!” Nishinoya thumped him on the back.

Hinata nodded, suddenly realizing how light-headed he was getting. After a moment’s hesitation, he continued, albeit at a much calmer pace. “And… and he said he was okay with me basically stealing his sweatshirts, which is something he would totally never be okay with. That’s weird, isn’t it? I’m not just overthinking things, right?”

Nishinoya sat back in his seat, contemplating. “No, no, it’s kind of weird.”

“This is Kageyama we’re talking about, though.” Kenma chipped in.

Nishinoya clapped his hands together, as if that were the revelation he had been waiting for all along. “You’re right! Acting weird might be totally normal behavior for him!”

Hinata cuffed them both on the head in response. 

“Hush! You guys have never even met him!” He said indignantly. 

Nishinoya just laughed, apparently unfazed by the blow. “Well, you talk about him so much I feel like I know him already!”

“Alright, alright! I talk about him too much! I know that! I regret telling either of you anything ever! New topic!” Hinata threw his hands up weakly, narrowly avoiding overturning his drink. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask them to come. Maybe friendship in general was a bad idea if they were just going to embarrass him. Or, maybe it was Hinata’s fault for being so incredibly embarrassing in the first place. Hinata pointedly ignored that last point.

Nishinoya let his grin soften, patting Hinata lightly on the back. “Hey hey, we’re just ragging on you. We’re here ‘cause we wanna help! And that means talkin’ about it.”

Kenma nodded, almost enthusiastic compared to his normal composure. “Yeah, we want to help you work through whatever it is you're going through, Shouyou.”

Hinata groaned quietly, his face against the table once again, before raising his head to look the two of them in the eyes. “Ah, thanks you guys. I just have no idea what to do!”

“About what, exactly?” Nishinoya asked.

“Just… I don't know! I don't really know how I… How I feel, I guess? Like, I didn't really deal with… Relationships much in grade school, and so I don't really have much experience with…” he trailed off, “with stuff like feelings…”

“‘Feelings’?” Nishinoya practically leered. “You're gonna need to elaborate here.”

“Oh, you know what I'm saying! Sometimes I just wanna punch him in his stupid face, but most of the time I just wanna… I dunno, be closer to him? Like, I really look up to him and I'm really glad we've finally gotten to the point where we’re so close but I can't help but feel like I want something… More.”

“Something like kissing?” Kenma piped up, a small grin lifting the corners of his mouth.

Hinata felt like he was on fire. He was really starting to regret not taking off his coat. “... Something like that…” He hung his head in defeat.

Nishinoya just clapped him hard on the back, oblivious to the small existential crisis his friend was just plunged into. “That's great, Hinata! You're finally admitting it! It's not a big deal at all, nothing to get worked up about.”

“Says you, Mr. ‘I've Been In A Relationship With the Love of My Life Since Junior High’!” Hinata snapped, no real fire behind his words.

“Not true!” Nishinoya retorted weakly. “We didn't get together until second year.”

“That reminds me, how is Asahi?” Hinata said, hoping it was a smooth transition towards a different topic.

“He's fine, nervous about setting up for that party our frat’s throwing.” Nishinoya replied flippantly. Hinata sighed almost imperceptibly, sure that his sudden segue had worked. 

That is, until Nishinoya’s scheming grin cut across his face once more. “Which reminds me; you ask Kageyama to go to the party with you yet?”

Hinata gulped. 

He was wrong.

“Well, uh, actually, I didn't… Need to…”

Nishinoya quirked his head to the side. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Kenma grinned wider than Hinata had seen him grin in a while (the bastard) and said, “I think that means that Kageyama has already asked him.”

Nishinoya’s eyes widened in shock. “Holy shit! Hinata! Is that true?” He barely waited for Hinata's small nod of reassurance before continuing. “Why didn't you tell me, oh my god!”

“Well, I figured you were tired of hea-”

“This is a game-changer! He's totally into you too, he has to be!” Nishinoya interrupted enthusiastically.

“It's not that big of a deal,” Hinata grumbled, not wanting to think of what was Most Definitely a Big Deal. “I mean, all of his friends were going with people I think, so he probably just wanted someone to come along with…”

“Even so, he chose you, right?” Kenma said, leaning casually on his elbow. Why was he so calm about everything?

“I guess…” Hinata's face reddened tenfold. “Don't word it like that, though! It sounds too… Intimate or something.”

“It definitely means something, though! Don't worry, by the end of the party on Valentine's Day, you guys won't be able to keep your hands off of each other, I'll make sure of it!” Nishinoya declared, determination clear on his face.

He pointedly ignored Hinata's cry of, “Don't talk about stuff like that!”

“Oh hey, didn't you mention Kageyama was friends with someone named Tanaka?” Nishinoya asked, surprisingly calm for such a sudden change in topic.

“Oh! Uh, I probably did. Tanaka Ryuunosuke, I think.”

Nishinoya’s signature mischievous grin showed itself for what felt like the millionth time that night. “Oh fuck yeah, Ryuu’s coming? This really is gonna be a party!”

The three of them stayed in that little cafe until well into the night, up until the baristas started giving them all dirty looks.

~~~~~~~

Hinata bounced with every step he took down the hallway to his and Kageyama’s shared dorm, thoroughly spent after a night of hanging out with his friends but happy from the conversation.

He rapped his knuckles against the door to their room loudly and waited a few seconds before determining that his friend wasn't there. He frowned, digging around in his coat pocket for his key (thank goodness he remembered it this time.) 

Pulling the door open, he grabbed his phone and typed out a short _“where u at”_ to send to Kageyama before fully entering his frigid dorm room. 

He hesitated before removing his coat, deciding to leave it on. Why was it so cold in there?

His phone dinged in his hand, momentarily distracting him.

_“Sorry, got a late start from the library and went to get takeout. I'm on my way back rn, I'm bringing u back some food.”_

Something warm bloomed in his chest and a wobbly smile coming across his face as his stomach growled in an almost Pavlovian response to the word “food”. He had just realized he hadn't eaten at the cafe.

_“Ahh omg thank u!!!! Hurry up and come home then!!!!!!”_

His stomach grumbled almost painfully once again as he flopped down ungracefully onto his mattress. The emotions he felt regarding Kageyama caring enough to bring him food were outweighed by his desire to eat, at the moment. His phone dinged again and he immediately jumped to read the message. 

_“I'm riding the bus as fast as I can”_

He chuckled, air coming out in visible wisps. Why the hell was it so cold? 

He hopped off his bed and walked over to the clunky old heater underneath the windowsill and placed his hand over the vents experimentally. 

Not even a hint of lukewarm air was coming out.

Of course the heat had to go out in his residency hall on a night the temperature was in the negatives.

Fuck it, he's stealing like, eight of Kageyama's sweatshirts tonight.


End file.
